Daniel Craig: Just Before James Bond

After a well known sports celebrity encourages me to consider, when working with celebs on any given day, they may have an experience that affects how they interact with you, I change my approach. This particular gentleman shares his fear of getting in a car driven by anyone else but himself after a near death accident with an errant driver. Every time he has to approach and pass up a hired driver, he’s sure they are miffed as to why he rejects them. Working with any celebrity, who are human, just like you and me, you realize that they can have good days and bad days. So when I came across a passage about how Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman handle paparazzi during one of their movies together, my first reaction is that they must dislike being photographed while working. In Shooting Stars by Jennifer Buhl, the author describes Daniel Craig as minding when she asks if it’s okay to take his picture. To which “he shakes his head and appears disgusted”. She says in the book, “I find his reaction arrogant”. Although I understand her remorse, I disagree with her assessment of how he is in my experience working with him. That said, I’m enjoying her book about her 3 years of taking photographs of celebrities and the machine that is paparazzi. I never knew that sometimes an actor makes money off the shots and is in cahoots with the shooters.

My experience with James Bond is a positive one. Here’s an excerpt from Making Up America about Daniel Craig.

In the fancy surroundings just across from the White House, the historic Hay Adams hotel hosts the group of celebrities, producers and shows (like Entertainment Tonight) on the sweltering rooftop during July, which is the hottest and muggiest time of the year in Washington, D.C. Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig (at the time unknown movie star) are both in town promoting a film that takes place in this town. You know him as the 6th James Bond, who changes the way we view 007. IMDb lists him as a dreamy dude.

Craig, Daniel Craig is a sweet and calm actor, who during a break asks me the best place to take a walk (before everyone knows his name and will stop him in his tracks because the announcement comes soon that he’s the new James Bond). Without doing so at the time but thinking about him now, if you step away and critique his look, without adding his reserved demeanor and sophisticated presence, you have a man’s face (anatomically speaking) without chiseled features or symmetrical perfection. Work with me here, I realize this is the debonair blond Bond. Yet, if you map his facial features the proportions do not make him Michelangelo’s David. Notice I’m talking about his face. The body is a subject for another book. Back to his face and 4 trademarks, as IMDb claims to be his best features : Rugged facial features being number 3. Beauty is proportional. There’s a formula for attractiveness, yet we must include how people act in real life to the equation.

Look at how celebrities shape the image of attractiveness and how the trends that originate from survival are now adapting from physical and facial beauty standards to meet today’s needs. At the top of my game, I enjoy being around beautiful people who are some of my favorite actors. On the other hand, realize that we’re all being judged by a jury of our peers when the most important person’s opinion is our own. With all the photoshopping and plastic surgery, gaining a true sense of self and our image is at the forefront. Sharing that the stars do have flaws and are unique because of them, we can embrace our own looks. Gaining perspective in what shapes the definition of beauty, read the reviews of the history of measuring good looks and eschew the radical ways people are trying to change their image in Suze’s book that humanizes celebrity.